Two political opponents are planning a rematch for state House seat

By CHASE SQUIRES

© St. Petersburg Times, published August 11, 2000

NEW TAMPA -- With a rematch looming in the race for the state House District 61 seat, both candidates have vowed a clean race, but both stress their differences.

State Rep. Ken Littlefield, the Republican incumbent from Dade City just off his first term in office, calls himself a Tallahassee insider who will work with the House leadership to represent this district, which includes northern New Tampa.

Democrat Larry McLaughlin, trailing again in campaign fundraising, is an outsider. He has never held elective office and vows he will fight the establishment for the little guy, schools and small business.

McLaughlin, 44, is depending on mostly small donations and his family, although his latest campaign report began showing some labor and teachers union money.

Although District 61 is nearly evenly split between Republicans and Democrats, and was created by a Democratic Legislature in 1992, no Democrat has ever held the seat.

Littlefield won the seat in a special election over McLaughlin last year -- 54 percent of the votes to 41 percent -- after his brother, Carl, gave the seat up to accept an appointment by Gov. Jeb Bush.

Ken Littlefield, 56, is a former minister who operated a family-owned furniture store. "What I will bring to the campaign, and will stress, is continuity," he said. "Send me back, and I'll continue what we started," he said. "I've created a real comfort level with leadership, and because of that, there will be some assignments that will be made available to me that would not be made to Mr. McLaughlin."

Littlefield said he will work to improve Florida's education system and wants to study health care and issues of growth, water needs and the protection of wetlands.

McLaughlin, in charge of program development at the University of South Florida, said he again expects to be at a financial disadvantage, but will campaign face to face with voters to overcome it. He said recent school reform efforts pegged to grading schools on standardized test performance are not working and said the tests need to be used to identify and help individual students, especially those from economically disadvantaged families.

He also thinks that lawmakers should play a bigger role in managing local growth and resources.

"Can we continue at the rate we are?" he asked. "My concern with our current Legislature is they'll tend to favor the development industry and its desire to continue with few constraints. We really need to have smarter planning and growth management."

Early campaign finance figures show that although McLaughlin was spared the expense of a primary, he lags behind Littlefield by $33,138 -- showing $14,131.96 in combined cash, loans and in-kind donations to Littlefield's $47,270 in cash.

Finance reports show nearly all of Littlefield's money is from out of town, including tobacco, Big Sugar, a Montana gambling equipment maker, alcohol and health care.

McLaughlin reported loaning or donating $2,000 of his family's money to his campaign.

© St. Petersburg Times. All rights reserved.